Over the past few decades, universities around the world have endeavoured to establish themselves as 'business friendly', 'business oriented' and, above all, as 'businesses' in their own right. In more recent years, this has led them to become international, transnational, multinational, intersectoral, multilingual, multicultural and, after the advent of the Internet, virtual. Amidst the smoke and mirrors of the university marketing campaigns, however, there is an argument to be made that universities have lost significant credibility with both business and society in general.